1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to document reproduction apparatus, and more particularly to operation of the apparatus during recovery from a malfunction.
2. Background Art
Various types of system shut downs during malfunctions are known in the prior art. Generally, reproduction apparatus is put through either a so called "soft" or a "hard" shut down sequences. In a hard sequence, the machine essentially stops the production at the time of malfunction. In a soft sequence, reproductions in progress continue through the apparatus, but new reproductions are not started.
Parts of the machine may be subjected to a soft shut down and other parts to a hard shut down. For example, a copier having a recirculating document feeder experiencing a jam in the marking engine may effect a hard shut down of the engine and a soft shut down of the feeder. If the jam is in the feeder, the engine may carry out a soft shut down and the feeder a hard shut down. Regardless of whether the shut down is soft or hard, production ceases upon detection of the malfunction.
Reproduction apparatus is known in which a plurality of reproductions of a multiple page original can by made such that the reproduction pages are arranged in a collated sequence. In optical copiers, this has been accomplished by recirculating the original pages as often as necessary to produce the desired number of copy sets, or by means of mechanical sorters.
It is also known to do the collation by means of an electronic multiple page buffer memory into which electronic signals representative of the image content of a plurality of original pages are written; to be subsequently read from memory in a predetermined page sequence to produce a plurality of reproductions of the multiple page original in collated sequence. Such apparatus is described in commonly assigned British Patent Specification 1,531,401 published on Nov. 8, 1978.
It would be desirable to provide a sophisticated and efficient automatic malfunction recovery system that maximizes the operator's opportunities to use the apparatus for production during the recovery process.